Building relationships through websites: A content analysis of Turkish environmental non-profit organizations’ (NPO) websites

This paper provides insight into the dialogic potential of Turkish environmental NPO websites, including social media adoption. However, 23 of 50 websites examined failed to meet half the criteria for building relationships (n 35). Of 19 sites with connections to social media, 16 used new media potentialities, however only four met all social media adoption criteria.     

All that is solid melts into work: self‐work,the ‘learning ethic’ and the work ethic

In this paper I examine the intersections between a general commitment to education and learning and the moral and ethical dimensions of the work ethic under contemporary capitalism. Drawing on Kathi Weeks' (2011) recent exploration of the work ethic in The Problem with Work, I suggest there is a relationship between the form and function of the work ethic‐ and what I term the ‘learning ethic’. I suggest that commitment to a learning ethic, to the unreserved power of learning and education‐ may reiterate a moral commitment to the personal characteristics that define the work ethic under capitalism. As a consequence, consideration of the form and function of these moral character ideals in the continuation of unequal social relations across educational and workspaces, become obfuscated by a generalized celebration of learning, education and self‐work.     

“There Aren't Any Gays Here”: Encountering Heteroprofessionalism in an International Development Workplace

Western-oriented workplaces use professionalism as a normative value to sustain and promote a cohesive work environment. Yet, through this qualitative study, the author points out some implications of using professionalism to manage staff relationships and behaviors. Using post-conflict Kosovo as the context, the author examined (a) the work experiences of 8 gay male aid workers and (b) the attitudes toward homosexuality of foreign staff members in 2 international aid agencies. The author introduces and suggests heteroprofessionalism as a root to homophobic and heterosexist behaviors present in the study. Heteroprofessionalism is defined as a professional value that screens out homosexuality.     

Hybrid social and news media protest events: from #MarchinMarch to #BusttheBudget in Australia

Public protest events are now both social media and news media events. They are deeply entangled, with news media actors – such as journalists or news organisations – directly participating in the protest by tweeting about the event using the protest hashtag; and social media actors sharing news items published online by professional news agencies. Protesters have always deployed tactics to engage the media and use news media agencies’ resources to amplify their reach, with the dual aim of mobilising new supporters and adding their voice to public, mediatised debate. When protest moves between a physical space and a virtual space, the interactions between protesters and media stop being asynchronous or post hoc and turn instantaneous. In this new media-protest ecosystem, traditional media are still relevant sources of information and legitimacy, yet this dynamic is increasingly underpinned by a hybrid interdependency between traditional news and social media sources. In this paper we focus on an anti-austerity government movement that arose in Australia in early 2014 and was mobilised as a series of social media driven, connective action protest events. We show that there is a complex symbiotic interdependency between the movement and the traditional media for recognition and amplification of initial protest events, but that over time as media interest wanes, the movements’ network becomes disconnected and momentum is lost. This suggests that the active role traditional media play in protest events is being underestimated in the current research agenda on connective action.     

Social network effects on academic achievement

How peer groups contribute to educational outcomes has long interested researchers. However, the possibility that peer groups dominated by either low- or high-achieving youth can have substantively different effects on achievement has been largely ignored. In this paper, we show that while being embedded in a high-achieving network of friends is not associated with increased own achievement, being embedded in a low-achieving network is associated with decreased own achievement. In additional analyses, we present evidence that these associations are at least in part due to influence, as opposed to only selection effects or shared environment. We also examine whether the structure of the network in which a student is embedded might affect their educational achievement. We show that achieving at higher levels positively predicts how centrally located a student is in their network, but being more centrally located does not predict concurrent achievement. This finding suggests that the behavior of individuals is affecting the formation of network structure and not the reverse.     

The Role of the Government in Addressing Social Issues in India: The Perceptions of Indian Undergraduate and Graduate Social Work Students

Using a convenience sample of 318 undergraduate and graduate social work students (193 women and 125 men) from a public university in India, this study examined the differences between Indian social work students' perceptions toward the role of government in addressing social issues in India. Using Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) 18, several statistical procedures were conducted to analyze the relationship between social work students' demographic variables and their perceptions of the government's role in addressing social issues in India. The results indicated that older social work students were more likely to perceive that the government should ensure equal opportunities for citizens. Female social work students were more likely to perceive that the government should ensure housing for citizens. BSW students were more likely to perceive that the government should ensure employment of citizens. Macro social work students were more likely to perceive that the government should ensure equal opportunities, housing, food, employment, and health insurance for citizens. The findings of this study may help social work educational administrators and faculty in India to develop a curriculum that provides social work students with the opportunity to critically examine the complex relationship between age, gender, marital status, number of children, socioeconomic status, educational status, area of concentration, and the role of the government in addressing social issues. Doing so will prepare social work students and professionals to think and engage in a manner that will allow them to challenge and advocate for a change to the status quo.     

Social Work Studies at a Haredi Women's College: Difficulties and Dilemmas

This paper examines the challenges faced by female Ultra-Orthodox students in a social work program designed for the Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. Findings were obtained from four focus groups with a total of 32 students. The participants reported being exposed to contents that were inconsistent with the perspectives of their community, fieldwork expectations and requirements that violated strict rules of gender separation, and inconvenient scheduling of exams and field trips that did not take their religious observances into consideration. Despite the considerable distress that these matters caused, most of the students made determined efforts to cope, to learn the course material, to carry out their fieldwork assignments, and to reconcile the discrepancies between some of the contents they learned and behaviors that were expected of them and their deeply held values and ways. Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations made.     

An integrated system of engaging social workers and community volunteers in social care for the elderly: case studies in Taiwan

Integrating volunteers into social care is widely expected but rarely successful in practice. This paper discusses how the Community Care Centre Plan organising community volunteers to provide services to the elderly in Taiwan. This plan successfully integrated social workers and volunteers in a national system to offer service in local communities, showing a systemic practice of community care and a unique case of community-based and volunteer-based service. The purposes of this paper are to introduce the programme design and to understand how to integrate the mission of social workers and volunteers’ performance. The governmental policy and requirements, the role of social workers and the provision of voluntary community service which contributed to form the system were examined in this paper.     

Using Work Values to Predict Post‐Retirement Work Intentions

Work values might be proximal predictors of individuals' late‐career intentions because they serve as guiding principles for the selection, evaluation, and justification of vocational behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work values and post‐retirement work intentions. The authors investigated individual work values within the structure of 4 higher order values elaborated on by Schwartz et al. ( 2012 ). Relationships between work values and 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions were examined. Data from 1,071 employees of a German logistics company were used to test the hypotheses. The results of a structural equation model indicated that work values were differentially related to the 4 types of post‐retirement work intentions. The identified work value–work type combinations add to the literature on post‐retirement work. Practice implications for promoting positive individual and organizational outcomes are drawn from the results.     

立体的文化自觉与文艺规律

文化自觉是对事物正确的认识和感悟。没有文化自觉就没有文化的建设和文化的创新。文化自觉靠学习和研究来获得。要提高对保护非物质文化遗产的文化自觉，提高文艺的社会本质和艺术本质的文化自觉。要用六维的立体思维去观察和认识文化，提高对文艺规律的文化自觉，实现社会主义文艺的大繁荣。